Well, that’s stupid, many of you are saying. Isn’t it obvious? Without Peyton Manning, they stink. That is obviously true, but with the complete dissary of the Colts, that just can’t be the only factor.
1. Peyton Manning: No duh. But besides his incredible passing skills, the Colts miss his presence to strike fear in opponents, make plays, and his veteran leadership that makes the Colts believe he’s going to make the play.
2. Curtis Painter: As we all know, Painter is no Peyton. But his inexperience and less than stellar performance so far, combined with -their 0-8 start leads the players to believe they cannot win without Peyton.
3. A Weak Running Game: Delone Carter is decent, but he’s only a rookie and their other two running backs are Donald Brown and Joseph Addai. Brown will never be an NFL star, and Addai is washed up and injury prone. The lack of a solid run game has also put the pressure on Curtis Painter to make plays, and he hasn’t responded well. To be fair, Painter must feel like he has to fill the enourmous shoes of Manning, and he doesn’t feel like he can just hand it off to the running back.
4. The Defense: Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis are actually pretty good, but any NFL O-line can contain two players if the rest are ineffective. Also, the secondary hasn’t been really any good since Bob Sanders had his last good season.
5. Special Teams: C’mon, is the Colts Special Teams really the reason of their horrid performance this year? Well, it certainly doesn’t help them much. The lack of explosive playmakers on Kick and Punt returns puts them in not great field position, and the Offense doesn’t drive themselves into Field Goal Range very often.
Pigskin and Pine Tar 